“What the hell are you doing?” screamed Bill Grayson at his sister as she raised the ice wall.As Solid Copy collapsed at the base of her semi-transparent, ten-foot high wall, Amanda Grayson lowered her arms. The ice wall cracked and crumbled to the ground, some falling on the moaning and still prone Solid Copy. Valkyrie could create ice in seconds, but it would take a few hours until it melted away.“Don’t worry, the boy’s alive,” assured the wind to Alaina as she looked around, “but we need to hurry if we are going to catch Justice.”“Michael?” she asked looking around...

“Two minutes, sir,” the copilot said over his shoulder.Director Thorton nodded as he patted the copilot’s shoulder. “Drop the ramp now,” he ordered over the radio.The flight engineer responded with a quick acknowledgement and moved to the controls. “Clear the ramps! Clear the ramps! Door opening!”The V-22 Osprey bumped and rattled as it rapidly descended and required headsets for anyone inside due to the loud environment. The noise inside grew louder, first from the high-pitch whine of the hydraulic ramp in the rear of the aircraft as it lowered, and then from the sound of the rushing...

“What?” screamed Bill Grayson as he ran to the window and pulled open the blinds. “Why would you call the JTF, Amanda? They’ll arrest Alaina because of them!” Bill rubbed his face as his eyes darted between his uninvited guests.“Unlike you, brother dear, I have never cooperated with the JTF even when threatened with prison. Maze?”Maze leaned forward and closed his eyes briefly before reopening them. “They are almost here. Bill, they don’t want Archangel. They only want Michael.”Bill laughed. “Isn’t that comforting, but Daniel Lehrer is not known for compassion. If he thinks...

“If you’re going to stay,” Bill Grayson said as he poured his bourbon bottle and filled a shot glass, “I might tell you more about Detroit. You need to understand what kind of people you will face and why I’m not letting my daughter get involved.”“Yes, please enlighten everyone on your colossal screw up, oh fearless leader” Maze responded. Michael noticed that Maze did not move very far from the door and refused the offer for a chair by Alaina. Things were already tense enough between the two former Old Guard rivals, but the pacing and casual looks out the window just made it worse.Bill...

“We don’t know who the pilots are,” Scimitar said walking through the wreckage of a smoking helicopter.The remains of two charred mundane bodies were outside of the vehicle wreckage. After he discovered the cockpit and found the dead pilots, Justice ripped out the seats and dropped the still smoking bodies away from the burning wreckage to preserve evidence. Director Thorton gave the bodies only a cursory glance before entering the wreckage. His Harris armor would protect him from the heat and smoke so he did not worry about the danger now that Justice had pulled the fuel tanks away from...

“Wait, wait,” Michael said waving his hands at Maze and Orbital Strike, “Judge was in Detroit that night? I thought the official reports put him in California until he got called to help with the fires?”Maze’s voice boomed as he laughed. “Do you think the U.S. government wanted their poster boy to be part of the biggest cluster fuck Enhanced operation on American soil? Judge was the hero saving lives in Southern California under the strict guidance of Washington D.C.. If he returned to his old team and burned down a major metropolitan center, the scandal might have taken down the entire...

Detroit - 15 Years AgoA warm autumn breeze blew along the Detroit river over the staging area just out of Riverside park. Orbital Strike smiled as the threat of rain diminished throughout the afternoon as every major hero from east of the Mississippi river assembled in the Motor City to take down most of the FBI’s most-wanted Enhanced criminals including Herr Metall. The needed this victory after the destruction in Los Angeles and increasing calls for federal regulations of Enhanced activity.Despite the press releases afterwards, the decision to elect Bill Grayson the new leader of The Old Guard...

“Yes?” the red-haired woman asked through the small crack in her door.Michael squirmed. This is not how he intended to visit. Although he wore a new clean shirt from Maze, the older Enhanced was much more broad-shouldered than him and the shirt hung down loosely off his body. He did not look like most mundanes even though his time in prison did not allow exercise, but he had lost some of the muscle  weight he gained during training. Maze did not have any pants that would fit him so Michael rolled down the prison jumpsuit and wrapped the long sleeves around his waist. The bullet wound...

Even with the engines turned forward like a conventional aircraft, the V-22 Osprey bounced up and down in the turbulence. The aircraft was filled to maximum capacity with men in Harris armor and other in the standard JTF Enhanced suits. Justice squeezed his way between two soldiers from Bravo company.“You’ll never make it through, Justice,” Trauma said standing in front of him. “Scimitar and Director Thornton wants everyone to stay put until touchdown.”“Shutup and wait for orders,” said Justice as he rolled his eyes. “In other words, we have no idea what the hell is going...

The first thing Michael’s mind registered was the sound of a car engine struggling to run. As his eyes blinked, the blurry world slowly returned to focus. His brain counted the seconds out slowly. After a moment, he tried to move, but his neck felt stiff from the awkward angle, and his shoulder flamed with the burn of a thousand hot pokers. He tensed up out of reflex, guarding against the pain. The wind from several bullet holes in the windshield blew on his face.The pain in his neck came sharply back as he jumped at the familiar voice that spoke next to him, “Well, look who decided to wake...